Stress and conflict management in core facilities-News from an imaging survey

While conflict management is a well-known challenge for people working in the service sector, this topic remains largely unexplored in scientific imaging core facilities, despite frequent interactions with diverse users in environments with complex service demands. To address this gap, we conducted a survey to assess staff experiences, challenges, and the availability of institutional support. The 38-question survey, completed anonymously, covered three areas: (1) respondent background; (2) assessment of stress in core facilities and coping mechanisms and stress management resources; and (3) work environment challenges such as user interactions and overall work atmosphere. The results highlight the need for more awareness, targeted training, and organisational strategies to improve staff well-being and foster a collaborative work culture. By raising awareness and providing actionable insights, we aim to inform best practices for conflict de-escalation and, when necessary, conflict management in research infrastructure settings. While exemplified with scientific imaging facilities, we believe our survey results are easily transferable to other scientific cores and infrastructures with similar service and user interactions. In addition, the dataset is available to other researchers on figshare. Information concerning the data records, usage notes, code availability, and technical validation is presented.